Give Me a Reason to Love You
by Chocolate Boy
Summary: What seemed like a harmless spell at Damon's behest brings about more than both the charming vampire and Bonnie Bonnett could've imagine. Namely, zombies. Bamon!
1. Summertime Sadness

**Somehow I've become a member of the Bamonators. I mean, I was always a member, just never active. And here we are, my first canon fic and my first time writing Bamon. Honestly, it was inevitable. **

"**Give Me a Reason to Love You"**

**Chapter 1 – Summertime Sadness**

"Does this outfit make me look fat?"

Caroline twisted and morphed her body into shapes I didn't think fathomable. Maybe her body was made out of putty. That explained it. Or maybe it was all those years of being head cheerleader paying off. She stared at her reflection in the full-length mirror sitting in the corner of her room, her face plagued with disgust at what she saw.

"You know you're not fat," Elena reassured, applying a fresh coat of sparkling tangerine nail polish to her toes. Cotton-balls sat in between each little piggy, making her feet look webbed like Kermit the Frog's.

Why did Kermit put up with Miss Piggy? She was such a bitch.

"You're beautiful," I added, crossing my legs over each other as I sat in a wicker chair placed out of sight and out of mind. The room was a perfect representation of my best friend – girly and sweet. From the candy floss pink walls to the MAC makeup scattering her oak vanity, nothing would tip you off that this was a vampire's safe haven. The fact that she kept a bookshelf dedicated to the entire _Twilight _series was even more of a sway in the opposite direction.

Yanking the expensive dress off her body, Caroline tossed it to the floor like a worthless rag fit for the likes of Oliver Twist. She marched to her closet that was almost as big as her bedroom, getting lost amongst the company of Vera Wang, Jimmy Choo, and Alexander McQueen. Caroline had clothes that made A-listers seem middle class. Her wooden hangers got a taste of the rich and famous lifestyle while I was here sitting in ripped jeans I had since Sophomore year and a ten dollar Aztec print tank top.

"Ugh, I'm hideous." Her voice floated from the closet. "Just call me Miss Piggy. I'm Caroline Piggy."

If she were hideous, then what the hell was I?

I shook the idea from my head, noticing that this had been the only time Caroline wasn't in the room. Elena noticed too, her eyes flying to mine with a stare that read, _"Don't do it, Bonnie! She'll know!" _

Caroline would never figure it out. Never ever.

I held my finger up to my lips and hushed her from tattle telling. My eyes flew to the closet door, making sure that Care was still lost inside. I'm sure her walk in closet led to Narnia anyway. She was too preoccupied in there to know what was going on out here.

So I did it. I broke the one rule she told me not to.

Running my finger against my cheek, I stained it in the cool, creamy substance spread over my face. I popped my finger into my mouth and my body swooned at the taste. Was it a bit primitive and barbaric to eat the facial your friend prepared for you? I guess. But when you're hungry, you'll just about eat anything.

And don't pretend as if you haven't tried it.

"You better not be eating your facial mask, Bonnie!" Mother Caroline scolded without even being in the room. My finger popped out my mouth and scurried behind my back like a child caught redhanded.

Elena bit back a laugh, giving me yet another stare that this time I interpreted as, _"I told you so." _

Sometimes I thought _Caroline _was the witch by how perceptive she could be.

"Why would I do that if you told me not to?" I didn't tell her to make a mask that tasted so good. Yogurt, honey, and bananas belonged on a plate, in a smoothie, anywhere but my face. "Even if I am starving."

"We all promised to lose five pounds before college, Bonnie," Elena said, picking up the latest issue of _Cosmopolitan. _

How to talk dirty.

The three words that turn a man on.

Threesome Confessional...

Was any of that magazine about empowering women and not about catering to a guy?

"Correction, you two made a promise and threw me into it. I don't want to lose five pounds."

I just wanted to enjoy my summer before college started. That meant sleeping in and staying up late. Partying hard and being free. Having fun. Something that seemed like more of a luxury than it should've been.

"Bonnie, I am _not _going to let you gain the freshman fifteen okay? So if we get a head start and lose weight now, we'll still look flawless if we gain it all back." Revealing her latest ensemble, Caroline sprang into the spotlight. "How do I look?"

My jaw fell and had this been a cartoon, a mile long tongue would've rolled out my agape mouth. What she had on was so small, I didn't know if it were actually a dress or a shirt. It hardly covered her and showcased every single asset she'd gotten during high school. Seriously, it left nothing to the imagination. Even Rihanna would've blushed had she seen the ensemble.

How do you tell your best friend that sometimes her tastes bordered cheap, motel 8 hooker?

"Where's the rest of it?" was my response.

"Prostitute." Elena swerved and made a left turn, taking a different approach than me. "Call girl. Streetwalker. Red light district. Prostitute."

Giving an exasperated growl that would've turned a lion into a mouse, Caroline made no attempt to change into something better. Instead she gave up and fell face first onto her bed, mimicking that one girl on _the Ring_ right as she crashed into the rocky waters below the cliff.

"Everything I have is so... so high school," she cried. If that's what she considered high school, I'd hate to see what she planned on wearing this fall. "Is it so hard to find something that's sexy without bordering slutty? Preppy but not snobby? Intelligent and chic, but not nerdy all while embodying what it means to be Caroline Forbes? Elle Woods did it and I'm prettier than fucking Reese Witherspoon."

_Legally Blonde_ was such a good movie.

"What you have now is better looking than anything you'll see on campus." Elena sympathetically rubbed her back. I took this opportunity to steal another taste of my face mask since Caroline was suffocating herself with an embroidered throw pillow.

Care was just being a drama queen. She knew that her clothes equalled four years worth of tuition so there wasn't a reason to complain. College kids were too busy fighting their roommates over ramen noodles to worry about fashion.

"Besides, college is about the experience and education. Not fashion," I said. "What are you two majoring in again?"

"Creative writing." I'd almost forgotten Elena wanted to become a writer and get her work onto the New York Times Best Seller list.

If it were possible, I think Caroline would've sunken even deeper into her bed. Kind of like Johnny Depp in _Nightmare on Elm Street. _Except without all the death and blood."Undeclared."

"Me too."

I'd rather wait a semester or two figuring myself out before jumping head first into a major. The idea may have scared some, but I was excited to not know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I'd have the freedom to experiment. Trial and error.

"Think about it." Elena smiled. "Come this fall we'll all be roommates at Virginia U. How amazing is that."

My face became as white as the mask coating it. Thank god they couldn't see the color drain from me like I'd been in the presence of one serious apparition. And I'd felt so sick to my stomach as if I'd gotten off the Tower ofTerror.

How was I supposed to tell them that I didn't accept my admissions letter to Virginia University? That I'd secretly applied to USC and got in? Come fall I'd be three thousand miles away taking flight in the City of Angels.

Maybe now was the perfect time.

"You guys-"

"Out." Before I could utter another word, Damon Salvatore barged into the room without even knocking. He ignored our collective screams and gripes, waving his hand nonchalantly at the sound of the commotion and didn't bother to speak until our hyena-like screeching died down. "Caroline, Elena, leave."

"You do not come into my house and tell me what to do," Caroline scoffed, throwing a pillow at Damon who only dodged it. Elena sat back down onto the bed after seeing that Caroline wasn't going to budge. Was she actually going to listen to him in the first place?

"Fine. Witch-" Damon's eyes widened and his words shriveled as he turned to me. Not a creature stirred, not even a mouse, as he and I had our stare down. "What do you have on your face?"

I shouldn't have been embarrassed. I shouldn't have let what he thought about me make me want to go into hiding. But it did. The way his lips twitched into a smirk made my heart feel like it'd been stoned. And the twinkle in his eyes was enough to coerce me into buying a one way ticket back to Nova Scotia where I'd spend the rest of my days incognito.

"What do you need me for?" Pretending to be unaffected was the best solution.

The quick glance Damon gave to Caroline and Elena before shifting back to me let me know that it was something he didn't want anyone else to know about. The silence he allowed to spread over us was another clue. Something was going on. I wasn't going to risk outing him just yet, or tell him to go shove his problems and find another witch. Not until I knew how severe the situation was.

Tilting his head to the door beside him, silently behooving me to go with him, Damon left the room without saying another word. He was going to leave it in my hands on whether I'd go after him or not.

The decision was easy.

I'd take dealing with Damon over feeling guilty about not telling my friends I was leaving the state any day.

I wiped my facial away with a towel, ignoring how Caroline whined in protest over how I'd never have barely there pores. Standing, I gave my two best friends a reassuring smile before heading after the stubborn, inconsiderate vampire.

"I'll be right back."

**Thank you for reading! **


	2. I Made a Deal With the Devil

**TVD is a completely shit show. I don't know why I continue to watch it if I hate it so much. **

**Chapter 2 – I Made a Deal With the Devil **

Damon and I waded through the thick shrubbery and dewy foliage that swallowed us whole. Twigs, dirt and god knows what else crunched beneath my feet as I let him lead us off the beaten path. I wiped the sweat from my brow - moisture from last night's rain smearing the air. Not only could I see steam rise from the plants like a New York City gutter, but what was once an overlooked forest turned into a humid amazon.

A foreign tickling sensation whispered over my arm and my body reacted before my mind could. I reflexively hit my bare skin, turning it palm up to see the remnants of a creepy crawler on it. Gross. Maybe I should've just stayed back with Caroline and Elena. No one told me I'd be dealing with bugs. "Damn mosquitoes."

Great, I was gonna look like a pepperoni pizza before the night was over with.

"Were you saying something back there?" Glancing over his shoulder, Damon offered me a whimsical smile. He knew I was going to have to smother myself in calamine lotion tonight and took joy in it. Of course he would.

Slapping away the hand he offered to help assist me over a fallen tree separating us, I managed to overcome the log on my own. I could burn this entire forest to the ground and clear a pathway if I wanted, I didn't need his help.

"Only that this would be so much quicker if you just used your vampire speed right about now," I said, sidestepping him to become the leader in our walk. I had no idea where I was going or if it was even in the right direction, but we'd been playing mother duck for far too long now. "You capitalize on your vampirism any other time."

"But me doing that requires touching you which I've been prohibited to do." Catching up to my side, Damon leaned in towards my ear, ready to spill secrets that he didn't want the trees and birds to here. We were already alone as it was, his gesture was just for show. "Unless of course you want me to."

Damon wouldn't be Damon without his false of confidence. Even when we all knew just how heartbroken and lonely he really was, he stilled faked bravado and what he thought was charm.

I was used to ignoring it by now, because he lacked the art of taking hints. "Shut up and just tell me where to go."

"Fine, fine. Bossy Bennett." After calling me one of the many ignorant nicknames he kept in his arsenal, Damon stopped abruptly. "We're here."

Scanning the area, there wasn't anything unusual. Everything was exactly the way it should've been. It wasn't until I saw the Nike shoebox with RIP written and underlined in red sharpie placed at our feet that I knew this was all for nothing.

This was just another one of Damon's shenanigans.

Sighing out every urge that made me want to kill him right here and now, I instead glared at him out the corner of my eye. "What's in the box?"

"Open it and see, Detective Mills."

"Who?"

"Don't tell me you haven't seen Se7en, Bonnie."

"Fine, then I won't."

"Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey. It's a classic."

I didn't have time for this. Damon was seriously overstepping his boundaries to think that he could just snap his fingers at anytime and think that I'd help him. This wasn't _I Dream of Jeannie, _I thought this was serious.

It wasn't until I did as he told me to and opened the box that I saw just how serious this was.

The smell alone could've made me puked. Rank and rancid flesh began to go grey from decay. Blood dried black was caked against matted tabby fur and long whiskers. Eyes that were once a beautiful shade of amber now were a dull and sunken brown.

Everything remotely intelligent escaped me and all I could do was state the obvious.

"You killed Bilbo?"

"Really, it sounds like you're judging me harder for killing a cat than when I kill people. You need to sort out your morals, Judgy." Wasn't that just like him, to blowoff his actions with snide comments. "Besides, it's not like I meant to. The little fucker shouldn't have snuck up on me. And then he attacked me. _He _started it."

None of that mattered. Damon still killed Elena's cat in cold blood.

"What were you doing in Elena's house by yourself in the first place?"

The wind whistled between the leaves and the trees, a rich scent of earth gliding beneath its currents. I could hear the crows caw and the deer traipse, but what I didn't hear, was Damon's response to my question.

He blinked. "Don't ask questions you're not ready to know the answer to."

I wasn't going to go down that road less traveled right now. There was more than enough for me to argue with him about right in front of me. "How does this require my help, Damon? You can't just cry wolf like that. I thought you were in some kind of real danger."

He gave me a playful shove. He must've forgotten that that wasn't a part of our relationship. "You sound concerned. Almost as if you give a damn about me."

I hated his smirks. The comments and selfishness I could handle, but his know-it-all smirks... I couldn't deal with them. It ignited a rage so violent in me, I could kill him and not lose a wink of sleep over how Elena would feel. "Five seconds to tell me why I'm here before I hurt you. Five, three-"

"I need your help."

"Nothing new there," I said. "What makes you think I'm offering it?"

"You don't have a choice."

"Really. Want to explain why?"

His eyes, the color of a cold Winter sky, couldn't have been more sizzling. His body swayed to mine and I tried shoving him away but he didn't budge. His lips puckered, begging to spill whatever dirty details he knew. "Because if you don't, I'll tell everyone how you won't be going to Virginia University this fall and will instead be taking surf lessons in California."

I could've doubled over from the verbal sucker punch to the stomach he gave me. I needed a ventilator because all of the oxygen turned to carbon as it was sucked from my lungs. "How did you-"

"Bonnie Bennett's got a secret. How's it feel not being so vanilla for once?" He coiled a piece of my hair around his index finger. "It's about time you let that pristine record of yours get sullied."

He didn't bother circling around me like a vulture. No, Damon surpassed that cliché and just looked directly into me. He wanted to fully see every emotion wash across my face and revel in it. This may have been the only time where I was the one helpless and at his mercy. What made it all the worse was that he knew it and took to it like a kitty does catnip.

"When did you-"

"About two weeks ago. You were acting differently so I, being the inquisitive fellow that I am, rummaged through some of your things and found an acceptance letter to USC." Waving a fist in the air, Damon held it above his head, mimicking a pompom. "Go Trojans."

How was he able to know something was wrong with me?

I fooled everyone.

Including Caroline and Elena.

And they'd known me since grade school...

I wanted to fight back. I wanted to see my secret and raise him another, but sadly Damon had been acting like a good boy as of lately. There was nothing I could do but let him call the shots. For now. "Name your price."

"Bring Bilbo here back to life." He nodded to the dead cat on the ground.

Scoffing, I think I almost smiled at his ridiculous request. "You know I can't do that."

"Correction. You _can _do it, but are choosing not to. Just like how I'm going to choose to spill your secret if you don't do this. I wonder how hurt they'll be since it'll be coming from me. Who do you think will be more consumed with rage? Caroline or Elena?"

"It requires expression. I don't practice that kind of magic anymore." After being brainwashed by Silas and almost dying, I wasn't going to chance losing myself to dark magic again. Damon should've respected that.

"How much expression will it take? You're bringing back a cat, not a human." He shrugged off my fears like they meant nothing to him. He diminished everything I'd went through with a single nonchalant comment.

"Why can't you just buy her a new one?"

"Because she likes this one. She got it when she switched her humanity back on, you know that. It's the symbolism of the matter, not the actual object."

The emotional attachment Elena had to Bilbo was significant... and a little scary. She found him stranded not an hour into turning on her humanity. She said he was dirty, mangy, and lacked guidance, just like she did. So she decided that the two would survive it all together. It was sweet and creepy all at once.

If I were going to do this, it would be for Elena and Elena alone. Because I didn't want to see her reaction to another loss.

"How can I be so sure that after I do this you'll live up to your end of the bargain. That you won't tell Elena or try to hold something else against me?"

"You can't." He beamed, as if that were the best part. "Isn't that the beauty of dealing with vampires?"

As effortless as my breathing, I rendered Damon physically and mentally useless. It didn't take much thought at all actually as I gave him one of the many aneurisms he'd suffered from me. All I had to do was focus on delivering him as much physical pain as he gave me emotionally and _viola! _vampire down.

I stalked towards his crumpled body as he shook from the swelling of his brain's arteries. Lifting his chin towards me, it was my turn to look at all the emotions fluctuate across _his_ features.

"If you ever go through my personal belongings, blackmail me, falsely lead me to believe that you need my help with something important, and or threaten to spill my secrets ever again, someone will be begging me to use expression to bring _you _back. Get my drift."

Incohesive gurgles and groans served as my answer from him. I'm sure he would've agreed anyway.

"Good," I exhaled, letting go of his face along with all the torment I'd been putting him through. I never thought I'd see the day where I'd actually be counting on Damon to keep my secret to himself. Something told me this was not going to pan out well. "Then you have yourself a deal."

**Thanks for reading.**


	3. A LIttle Expression Never Hurt

**Chapter 3 - A Little Expression Never Hurt**

"Well?" Damon huffed.

I sneered, glancing up to meet the vampire's annoyed glare. Damon sat on the opposite side of the table from me. He forwent all manners and rested his feet on the polished oak wood, sullying it with his dust-coated shoes. While his feet may have concealed the bottom half of his face, I still could see his frosty eyes tinged with impatience.

"Well?" I mocked.

"Do your witchy magic." He waved me off hastily. Damon was always an impulsive person, wanting to dive headfirst into any task without thinking over the consequences. Didn't mean he was going to drag me into his bad habits. "Hocus pocus, presto chango, bring Bilbo back from the dead-o."

Was he trying to be funny?

Looking back onto the dead cat in the shoe box, I tried sighing away my apprehension. Like rain drenched clothes, a sinking feeling weighed heavily on me. My hands were clammy enough to make chowder out of and the goosebumps budding along my arms wasn't because the Salvatore Manor was drafty. This was a sign from the Spirits.

I could feel them reaching out to me as best they could. The irregular dim lighting in the living room. The frosty temperature. It was almost as if they were in the air, circulating like electricity. This was a sing. They didn't want me to go through with this.

"Just give me a minute."

"I've given you ten." Holding open both hands, Damon wriggled his fingers. "All you've done is stared at the dead cat."

"And all you've done is gotten on my nerves."

He stuck out his bottom lip defiantly before giving in to a shrug. "Comes with the territory."

"This goes against nature." I had to try changing Damon's mind one more time. "What's dead should stay dead."

I waited for Damon to give a snarky remark. Something along the lines of, '_Well technically I'm dead so... now what?' _but silence was the only response I had. I didn't have a clue as to what was going on in his mind, I couldn't even hear his breathing which coincidentally coerced me to hold my own breath in anticipation of his response.

Suddenly, he spoke.

"I wouldn't have asked you to do this if I weren't one hundred percent sure you'd be safe." Yeah, sure. I waited for something rude or condescending to come out his mouth. It wasn't every day Damon thought of someone other than himself. "You've raised the dead, Bonnie, and have done things I didn't think plausible until I met you, you'll be fine."

A single butterfly fluttered freely in my stomach at his words. Finally, someone had given me the recognition I deserved. It felt good to hear it spoken aloud. There wasn't really any time be thanked when you were busy trying to save lives, but hearing it from time to time was reassuring.

Had it been from anyone but Damon who was giving the compliment.

I almost believed him. How could I have been so stupid?

This was _Damon_ _Salvatore, _he wasn't a nice person and he didn't think of anyone but himself. That confession was all just a means to an end and he had to have been stupid to think that I'd fall for it.

"You're only saying that because you want me to do this for you."

"Friendly reminder that you're doing this for yourself – so that your secret won't get out."

"Don't try that reverse crap on me, I'm not Elena."

"Ouch." Laughing, Damon opened up a bottle of whiskey. "And I thought you both were friends."

"Is the alcohol necessary?"

"When is it not?" He poured the amber liquid into a glass, scooting it over my way. "Drink?"

He was out of his mind if he thought I was going to accept that. We weren't friendly enough.

"Since when were we drinking buddies?"

"More for me then," he guzzled a gulp straight from the bottle before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Let's get on with it now. I've got better things to do then conversate with you."

"Converse." Rolling my eyes, I gave way to a smile. "It's converse."

"What are USC's school colors again?"

I shook away as much of the outside world as I could and mentally prepped myself to use expression. If bringing back Bilbo was the only way of keeping Damon's mouth shut then I had no other chose but to appease him. Even if this had, 'Bad Idea' curb stomped on it.

Placing my hands onto the cat's matted fur, I concentrated on nothing but reviving it. That's all expression was – tapping into a witch's own powers and manifesting them into whatever they wanted to do. It was purely based on will. No spirits, no good magic nor bad, just raw limitless power.

Lights flickered, enshrouding Damon and myself temporarily in darkness before popping back on as if a child were playing with the switch. Chairs flew from one end of the house to the other and crashed into various valuable objects. I ignored it all and kept chanting what I wanted to happen over and over in my head like a mantra. There was no stopping now.

"Bonnie." Damon's uneasy sigh called out, but it was too little too late. Breaking the link between myself and the magic I was tapping into wasn't an option any longer. I'd warned him about doing this and now there was no going back. No matter how much I wanted to.

I ignored not only his protests, but the damage this spell was causing. The table beneath Bilbo rattled as if an earthquake were taking place. I struggled to keep my balance as nausea swept over me like I were on a ship during tumultuous weather. My chest tightened and I grit my teeth, tasting copper as the blood drizzling from my nose met my lips.

"Bon-" Damon couldn't finish my name before he was thrown backwards. He collapsed into a bookshelf, tumbling onto the floor as Morella and Jake Barnes joined him.

This wasn't right. I felt cold – lifeless. Resuscitating a cat wasn't supposed to result in me aching to die as a scream ripped from my throat. Lightbulbs shattered, slicing deeply into my skin as the glass hailed onto me. Icy, boney fingers clawed at my soul, threatening to yank it away from me. I fought to endure it all. The only thing that pulled me through was ensuring Elena's happiness. I'd done so much to protect her that I couldn't bare letting her down and watch her lose something dear to her again. Not even a cat, because Bilbo meant so much too her. She'd gone through enough.

My body stiffened as if I'd been plagued with rigor mortis. All the magic engulfing me dissipated like particles in the wind. The pain dulled until no traces of my torment were left. My hearing had been replaced with a dull ringing and I wheezed out the last remnants of air in my lungs.

Atropos had snipped my thread of life.

The last thing I saw before my sight snapped to black and I fell to the floor was Damon's face riddled with mortification.


End file.
